I'm 21! & drinking laws are ridiculous

Since i am 21 years of age as of 22 minutes ago I will use this time to point out how horrible drinking laws are in the state of Virginia and the country. It is sad to see a state so rich in the history of freedom and liberty to have morphed into this. The title link will take you to all the permission or extortion costs that one much incur to deal in alcohol or even to host and event with alcohol . You can also take note that to buy certain alcohol in Virginia you must go to ABC stores which all close at 9pm.

I will not be buying alcohol at those stores as it goes to a state run monopoly which I am opposed of in a nation built by free-market capitalism. People have a choice in this area as something like water or electricity would be much harder to avoid. They can decide not to support the state and these things will go away. This obsession with prohibiting drugs and the drug war is anti-freedom. I save the rant about the drug war and federal drinking age as those are topics themselves.

A big push has been happening recently to lower the drinking age to 18 which is a small step in the right direction http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249460/. The ideal situation would be no federal minimum drinking age. I also don't want to hear the BS technicality that it isn't banned (most states) in a private setting when parties are routinely shutdown for underage drinking. If your parent says its ok to drink in a private setting you should be able to go into 7 eleven and purchase for your mom or dad.


For more info: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/alcohol/abc.html

Almost Arrested- Threatened to leave public property

Events Detailed by Meetup Coordinator (I did not write this just edited it):

Today at the Manassas campus of NOVA we had the opportunity to educate eight members of the police force about the 1st Amendment and public property. Unfortunately, they were very unreceptive.

Chain of Events:
1. After an hour and a half of passing out Ron Paul flyers & libertycards we met a NOVA police officer.

2. We had a back and forth conversation about the 1st Amendment, public property, speech permits, and the need to leave campus immediately. He complained that people could not get to class because of us. This did not make any sense. We were spread apart and students could easily pass through. He also complained that because it was state property the state gets to make whatever rules it wants. We explained to the officer that the state actually gets its' money and authority from us. He didn't understand, but he finally agreed to let us stand is a certain area. The was good.

4. Then the fun began! This officer went back and told his supervisor about what happened. His supervisor showed up with flashing lights. The previous officer we talked to also showed up on the scene. The supervisor was not as reasonable as the original officer. He told us to leave campus immediately (this is when I left as the cop raised his voiced and threatened to escort us off the property) , and to get a "permit to speak" on campus if we ever wanted to come back again. When we asked about what the "permit" would allow us to do he said it would allow us to setup a table somewhere in the building. The available "permit" will not allow us to stand on the public sidewalk and peaceable hand out political speech.

5. Over the next fifteen minutes six more county police arrived on the scene. The discussion ran in circles for half an hour. We had to educate each new cop about the 1st Amendment, and the conversation got repetitive. We got the name of the Dean of NOVA and we will be having a chat. I plan to take a voice recorder.

6. I had to take my car back home for my wife so I left at 7:50PM with Adam and his daughter. Dave left shortly after that.

Hopefully we can get this sorted out.

Lessons Learned:
- We must bring a video camera next time. This event needs to be on YouTube. We have as much right to video tape them on campus and they have to video tape us (and there security cameras did).

- You only have the rights you assert. The state cannot take away your rights just because it wrote an unconstitutional law. The right to speak whether in flyer, sign, or audible form cannot be taken away just because someone writes a law. I asked one of the officers about why other people are allowed to speak, sit, stand, and walk on the public sidewalk; but somehow we are not "permitted" to do the same. The only answer he could give me was that we were impeding the students from going to class. It is too bad I do not have a video because zero students were impeded from getting to class.

- NOVA is owned by the state and not the county meaning the NOVA cops are state police. They actually have power to tell the county cops what to do on campus.

- The police will try to intimidate you and they will waste your money doing it. There were eight cops with lights flashing. I thought I paid these guys to protect me, and there they were preventing me from exercising my 1st Amendment right. None of them understood the rights of the people they were harassing. I'm beginning to wonder where my county and state taxes go. How can you enforce the law if you do not understand the basis for them?

Any thoughts?

Chad Nelson
Go Ron Paul!
Live free or die.

Robert Menard from ThinkFree.Ca

This guy has a really interesting view on life and has had extensive study in common law and statutory law. His videos are on google video under "The Magnificent Deception", and "Bursting the Bubbles of Government Deception". He basically lives in Canada as a freemen. He explains the differences between statutes and laws and how as being a free person you have more rights than you ever dreamed of as long as you exercise them. A lot of words you thought you understood actually have a different legal definition. Such as a person is a legal entity created when you are born. Everyone are human beings but not everyone has to be a person.

He basically says you are acting as a personally when you voluntarily consent to many government services. Many people think they are legally forced to follow stupid rules but his point is only when you voluntarily agree to them. Also if you don't understand the laws how can you be liable when you break one? You frequently hear "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" said by lawyers but it actually is an excuse when you have not previously agreed to it. A lot of people unknowingly agree (consent) to many laws without actually reading them. Anytime you file and application or registration you are agreeing to laws. This part makes sense to me because if the government didn't need your permission their would be no registration or application. How can anyone possibly know every single law and be liable for breaking it? It is like putting a spanish kid in an english speaking class and wondering why he fails! It makes sense the more you think about it and we should get back to a common law jurisdiction where we are only liable for hurting or defrauding someone. His arguments are very interesting and he promotes kindness and avoiding violence and conflict. I dunno how his philosophy applies to American law but I am assuming we first started out as a common law state before all these pages and pages of laws were passed.

Matt's Post From Facebook Ron Paul Group

This guy Matt posted a Facebook thread about losing passion for Ron Paul. Here is his post and my reply:

"After recently reading some of Congressman Paul's comments on a couple issues I'm beginning to lose support for him.. Specifically his stance on gay marriage and the issue of separation of church and state. As a Libertarian I support people's right to choose what to do with their own life including whatever person they desire to marry, and I also don't want religion sticking its nose anywhere in government. Congressman Paul already had a strike against him in my view for being pro-life. Do any other libertarians struggle with some of these non-libertarian views?

BTW, I don't wanna hear any BS about the constitution not saying anything about separation of C and S.. The first amendment is pretty clear."

My Reply,

"You know you can still vote for the libertarian candidate. Many libertarians have came out in support of Dr. Paul. Of course you are gonna agree with him on everything, but the issues you chose are basically non-issues because he will leave it to the states. If you want to get an abortion go to another state. If you want to marry a man (or file jointly with one at least) you could because the feds wouldn't be involved. You could also move to another state or fight to get it legal in your state.

He could also influence state politics as the president. And seeing as he is for getting the government at all levels out of peoples' personal matters that's moving in the right direction. As for keeping the government out of religion I believe he would be for that at the federal level (funding) at least, unless you have something to prove otherwise? Religion is a locality thing and should be handled on that level. Back in the day people were kicked out of towns and fought very passionately over religion, nowadays if someone say Christmas people think they have a right to be offended.

I think you need to look at the bigger issue of smaller government and not be clouded by the intrinsics, as less government is paramount to liberty."

Bush Biggest Taxer in World History

"In both current and inflation-adjusted dollars, that puts the federal government on course for the most revenue it’s ever collected in a year. Indeed, it’s the most revenue any government in the history of the world has ever collected."

Some people could make a case for 60-70 percent of your earnings are taken in taxes. There is no way to add up every tax you have to pay and figure it out. There are too many taxes. Sales Tax, Income Tax, Medicare, Social Security, Personal Property Tax, Phone Tax, 9/11 Tax, Gas Tax. Lets also not forget the biggest tax of all inflation. All those people keeping cash under the mattress are really losing out. I'd say buy something valuable with that money for safekeeping. If you are renting you pay some of the owners Property Tax in higher rent. Many people cannot get by on one paycheck like they used to. Is nobody else not noticing a trend? I am wrong that most people are working harder (maybe even two jobs) and are just breaking even? Early Americans revolted against a 2 percent tax on tea, while most Americans nowadays gladly accept small increases like that.

"The Fed" The Most Powerful Organization In the World

"The Fed conducts both temporary open market operations and permanent ones. Permanent, or outright operations, inject cash and remove securities from the banking system forever. The Fed keeps the securities it has acquired outright in the System Open Market Account, aptly initialed SOMA (in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the drug soma is produced to keep citizens in a steady state of happiness, much like the Fed's SOMA). Temporary operations, the ones entered into this Friday, involve 1–14 day repurchase or reverse repurchase agreements whereby the Fed purchases (or sells) securities in return for cash with an agreement that the commercial bank on the other side of the deal will buy back (or sell back) the securities after a period of days."

I know little about economics (No Economics 101) but I recently read Brave New World so I had to post this. The SOMA and System Open Market Analogy is great. By throwing all that money into the housing market they are keeping everyone afloat for a while and eventually putting the money back. They in recent years expanded their powers and its unimaginable what they would be able to do. Its like they can shoot up the market with heroin for a few weeks then give nothing at let the people suffer withdrawal symptoms.